> Supposedly the amount of silver needed to buy a goat during Roman times is similar to today
Interesting factoid if true, but it's hard to see how this could be anything other than coincidence. The relative scarcity, and demand, for goats vs silver must have changed massively due to things like modern factory farming, modern mechanized mining, modern fiat currency, modern food alternatives, etc, etc.
So, if the price of goats in silver is in fact still the same, I don't think the takeaway should be that these two commodities can be assumed to still have the same relative supply vs demand of 2000 years ago, and that this proves that bullion is a good store of value (even if it is).
Interesting factoid if true, but it's hard to see how this could be anything other than coincidence. The relative scarcity, and demand, for goats vs silver must have changed massively due to things like modern factory farming, modern mechanized mining, modern fiat currency, modern food alternatives, etc, etc.
So, if the price of goats in silver is in fact still the same, I don't think the takeaway should be that these two commodities can be assumed to still have the same relative supply vs demand of 2000 years ago, and that this proves that bullion is a good store of value (even if it is).